Instead it was the Tomo's turn. Hand shaped Evo, EPS/epoxy stringerless, 5'3" x 18.5" x 25/16", Futures three fin set up with Jar jar Florence set in it. Surfed in good slightly bumpy reef to sandbar surf 4-5'.

This board came out of a desire to feel out what Daniel was doing with his planing hull cut down ideas, I'd surfed a couple of FW versions of other designs and I'd seen Stu Kennedy riding this prototype that looked like a board I'd vaguely imagined, a snowboard style double ender. That's the Evo, so I got one.

Despite their radical appearance these boards are not complicated to ride, this one has fractionally too much foam for me really but feels very comfortable. It lifts from directly underneath thanks to the big centre scoop out channels, rather than from the rail or the fins like most boards tend to do, so there's a pleasant sensation of being driven very directly by that lift, almost hoverboardy sort of feeling. In other ways its slabbiness reminds me of the short single fins we used to ride in the late 70s, except in this case it actually works. It does very short arc turns off the fins and can really draw a long arc when you push off those centre channel edges in glidey swoopy sorts of turns that feel they'd ideally match Dan's home point of Lennox. The turns in between these can be a minor issue, the wide straight lined tail doesn't really wanna swing a circular ripping arc off the top; you can get it to happen but only in certain situations, like when a wave steepens and bends under the lip and gives you a curve to follow. It's just a bit clunky around that stuff otherwise. You've also sometimes gotta work a cutback a bit to get around the same thing.

I have a smaller FW version of this type of board and in that board, with more outline curve coming into the tail, those issues are solved. But it doesn't mean I'm gonna get rid of this one. It's an original piece of design and it's highly surfable and I'm gonna get it out whenever I see fit.

What waves do you think that is for the evo? The evo looks like the most user friendly of his designs so far. I've seen guys get them a little bigger than recommended for grovelling without too much issue re too much foam. Within reason of course.

Would they be wasted on someone interested in more drawn out arcs and "swoopy glidey" turns than say snappy turns, in smaller waves?

Asking for a friend.

we are the angry mob
We read the papers everyday
We like who we like, we hate who we hate
But we're also easily swayed

Ummm I'm not really intending to be all advicey here really, and I am v wary of directly advising a person whose surfing I've never seen on what surfboards they should ride. I'm just describing this series of surfs I'm having and how the boards feel to me. I do think almost any halfway competent surfer could ride an Evo though.

Did a trip up to Ulladulla to pick up some boards, Mini Mal is mine. It's my rehab board as I have been out of the water for a year, the other two are for mates and the grom gun is Russell Bierke's hand me down for a local grom that is starting to charge.

Yeah , I did go to SA but hardly surfed, it was the worst Autumn there for years copped all those fronts that made Vicco pump.

The year before in SA my board smashed my hand getting tumbled round in a wipeout and sprained my wrist and tore the ligaments in my 3 middle fingers, so for around 11 months I was unable to surf, if I knocked my hand or put any pressure on my fingers it was like getting hit with a hammer, and I couldn't rest it completely as I still had to make a living and not being a person with much discipline I gained quite a bit of weight(15kg) but by April my hand was getting better and was okay to surf and I pinned all my hopes on surfing Cactus everyday and thing would fall into place.

The first 3 surfs I had there were 4 to 6 ft and I got wash in 3 times each surf without a wave, I had no paddle power, I was surfing my bigger wave boards for flotation but I was to far gone and also I could not judge waves anymore. In the end the surf was blown out most of the time, had few small clean days and if I was lucky I'd pick up 3 or 4 waves in a surf, the day I did my hand I had surfed for 4 hours and gotten around 40 waves, so my high expectations made it seem worse
Since I have gotten back I have been out in some epic surfs but cannot surf small waves as I don't have the paddling power for my small boards and it's no fun riding a gun in waves under 5ft, and the surfs I have had are frustrating as I'm still to awkward and hesitant. There that's the crustty story , sorry you asked hey.
So I just come back from my first surf on the rehab board in waist height right handers and it was exactly what I had asked for. CTD there is a big difference between a custom made performance boards and pop outs even in mini mals, most mini mals are made for learners in mind.
This one is loose as, got a bit of curve in the tail rocker, so it is very loose

took it out to some 2-3 foot hollow rip bowls this morning, the board is long in the rail for me but I'm gonna stick with it for summer cos it's wide, flattish and paddles easy but still has a really nice foil and isn't thick like a 'hybrid' funboard eg. a 7S super fish or some shit. Got a couple open barrels on it.

At the very leat it'll force me to surf heavy on the back foot to turn it.